Sunday 10 October 2021, Trinity 19

Why do you come to church?

There are probably as many different reasons as people here…..but I am guessing that some of them include – connecting with God, asking for help, a place of peace and rest, lovely singing and worship, receiving the sacrament, hearing God’s word……But do any of you come to church to be challenged?

I ask this because, usually, we don’t like being challenged – being challenged means making us uncomfortable, maybe suggesting the need for change, pointing out our flaws, or asking us to make sacrifices for the good of others or our world.

Pope Francis, Archbishop Justin and Ecumenical Patriach Bartholomew issued a challenge in their recent statement on the environmental crisis. They asked everyone to examine their behaviour and pledge meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the earth that God has given us. They challenged us to think about the long-term impact of our choices and take urgent action to care for our world.

Typically – being challenged is not a fun experience and as a result, we may often react badly – we may challenge back and get aggressive, we may get overly defensive, or we may just walk away – it can be difficult to respond well.

I’d like to think that, if it’s God challenging us, we’d react better – after all, God already knows us completely (as is pointed out in our reading, in Hebrews: “no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare”.

There is no hiding, God knows us…. and God wants what is best for us and loves us….as we are told in Hebrews; “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” – This should mean we have no problem accepting God’s challenges to us - right? Well, that’s not my experience.

My experience is that, on the rare occasion that I really do feel I hear God clearly telling me something, my immediate reaction is to want to do the opposite and run away – and often I have.

Many years ago I did a lot of rowing – it consumed all my time and energy outside of work. My crew had just had a season of doing really well, narrowly missing out on medals in some top competitions, and we were all set for the next year to be the one where we got those medals. And then in church one Sunday in September I felt God asking me to give up rowing – and I ignored him –

and by Christmas I was hating it so much that I finally listened and stopped – at which point, I was freed up to deal with a number of things that had been holding me back from being who God made me to be.

Why is it, that even though we know God wants what is best for us, we find it so hard to follow his calling?

The gospel reading today gives us a clear example of this……the rich young ruler who is seeking a deeper relationship with God, wanting to draw nearer to God and has done his best to keep God’s commands, seeks out Jesus.

That’s better than many people manage isn’t it? He’s actively looking for Jesus, wanting to draw nearer to God. And how does Jesus respond?

Well, we are told Jesus looks at him and loves him. And from that place of love, he tells the man what he needs to hear – that he is lacking because he loves his possessions and wealth – Jesus asks the man to give up the thing that is getting in the way of him drawing closer to God.

Now it’s worth saying at this point, that we may have different things that block our relationship with God and hold us back. I wonder what is so important to you, that if God asked you to give it up, you would walk away and say no?

For many of us it will be money, and Jesus specifically calls out wealth in this passage – because of the way our world works, in this capitalist culture – because of the comfort and security that having money provides – it has a very strong grip - and this can get in the way of our ability to open ourselves to God’s love and love others as God would wish. But it’s not always money – so it’s worth thinking about what it might be for us.

So back to the story… what happens, when challenged by Jesus, is that the man walks away grieving – he isn’t ready to take that extra step and let go - but he is sad that he can’t do what is being asked of him.

 And what is really interesting, is that Jesus lets him go. He doesn’t chase after him or soften the message, he just lets him walk away.  

This is very unexpected – after all, isn’t Jesus about welcoming people in and loving all – isn’t he about revealing God’s love – so why does he just let this man walk away?

What do his comments to the disciples about it being hard to enter the kingdom of heaven really mean – do we really believe that very few rich people will be saved because it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle?

Well, perhaps controversially – I tend to think that comments on the kingdom of heaven refer to the here and now rather than eternity – we pray every week – may your kingdom come, on earth, as it is in heaven – and perhaps, this is about Jesus challenging us to be part of making that prayer a reality.

After all, in the kingdom of heaven, we will all share what we have, no-one will go hungry, there will be freedom, justice and love – and perhaps Jesus is challenging us to make that a reality sooner rather than later.

We may not always be able to live up to Jesus’ challenges to us, but I’m not sure that means eternal damnation – after all, Jesus says – “for God, all things are possible”, and in Hebrews, we hear that:

“we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are”.

God is merciful and full of grace – God wants to help us in our struggles, but as Jesus shows in the gospel, is not going to force us before we are ready.

So I ask again – why do you come to church? Are you willing to hear God’s challenge to you?

Amos says: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you”

Are you willing to do that – seek good? Because if God is challenging us – we can be sure it is with the purpose of wanting what is best for us, enabling us to bring more love into the world.

So maybe today, we can open ourselves up to a little more challenge, remembering how much God loves us. Maybe we can start to loosen our grip on our wealth, possessions and other security blankets that block our relationship with God and maybe, if we can do this, we can bring God’s kingdom a little nearer to our precious and fragile earth.